A World of Many Hats and Not Enough Shoes

I'm sure you have been wondering, "Why Cesky Tesin?"  We chose to go to Cesky Tesin because it was where Leah lived for 7 years (before she moved to Strakonice three years ago) and we have always wanted to see where she lived, the people and the places.

We got to see her old apartment complex (Which, did mom cry when she saw them?  Maybe it was like when I moved out of that frat house and mom said, "Had I known this was where you were living, I wouldn't have let you live there?" Oh, Mom!).  Needless to say, the stories from Leah about living in this complex were always very entertaining. 

While they don't look any different than a 70's built apartment complex in the states, they do look incredibly different from other construction in Czech.  These complexs were built by the Communists in clumps throughout Czech's larger cities.  All of them are the exact same size and shape, unphased by city or culture.  They stick up like sore thumbs in bland Band Aid colors across the beautiful Czech countrysides and quaint cottages.  In recent years the Czechs have been covering them with thick styrofoam and then painting them bright colors and patterns.  They still stick out only now like decorative/themed Band Aids, much more fun and much less depressing.  This photo is of them before painting:

We Josh also wanted to stop by a Kaufland.  Kaufland translated in German means "Buy Land" and Josh had to go there for that reason alone (goodness, I LOVE that guy! / though we also needed to buy some wine).  Most store chains in Czech: Kaufland, Tesco, etc, are similar to cramming a Walmart, Fareway & Aldi into one small place.  The biggest difference is that beer is cheaper than water, literally.

We were also incredibly excited to join up with the amazing Ellenwood family & friends for dinner, swimming and a movie.  The Ellenwoods (Mel, Amy and their 3 kids) have lived in Czech for over 12 years.  Mel is the VP of JV, but more than that, Mel and Amy have been (and are) amazing friends to Leah since she's lived in Czech.  We have met them before (I designed the JV website circa 2000, hahahahaha! What was I thinking!) but we have never had the chance to spend time talking with them personally at length.

It was wonderful to listen to their stories about life in Czech, speaking the language, cultural differences, traveling around from camp to camp with the kids in their VW van, in general raising kids in the Czech mission field, and laugh!  The Ellenwood family's humor is absolutely perfect for our Leah, if you knew how funny Leah is, wo/man!, you'd think God hand picked them for her.

Happily too, Leah's dear friend Romana, who is a sweetheart, and her husband, who my aunts think is a cutie, were able to visit.  (Romana just got married during the floods and Leah, Lucka, and the bride and groom were stranded in a flooded field together, oy!)  And, since the Ellenwoods are constant hosts, there was also a pastor from California visiting, scoping out Czech housing for his young family to move into next year.

Mel and Amy wanted us, but more importantly our kids, to feel relaxed at their home.  They served up a fabulous "American" dinner of grilled BBQ chicken and pasta salad (Miriam had 3 large servings), had two big dogs that Max and Miriam loved playing and rolling around in the grass with, let the kids swim in their pool (with Noah their 14 year old son, who has a knife collection that our boys think is the coolest and who gave Miriam a gummy bear key chain some swooning teen girl had given him, ha!), and then snuggled them into the living room and put in "Over the Hedge" in English... Our three were so happy and right at home! 

Though admittedly, it doesn't take much for our three to make themselves right at home, anywhere, but still, they were loving it!